History
Copland was asked to write a musical portrait of an "eminent American" by the conductor Andre Kostelanetz. Originally, Copland had wanted to portray Walt Whitman, but it was decided that a political figure was needed: "From this moment, Lincoln seemed inevitable." (Copland) Copland used material from speeches and letters of Lincoln and quoted original folk songs of the period, including "Camptown Races" and "Springfield Mountain". The latter quote is probably a reference to Lincoln's association with Springfield, Illinois, although there are no mountains in Springfield, and the ballad was instead written about Wilbraham, Massachusetts, which was formerly named Springfield Mountain.
Copland finished Lincoln Portrait in April 1942.
The first performance was by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on 14 May 1942, with William Adams as the narrator.
Read more about this topic: Lincoln Portrait
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (18831955)
“Literary works cannot be taken over like factories, or literary forms of expression like industrial methods. Realist writing, of which history offers many widely varying examples, is likewise conditioned by the question of how, when and for what class it is made use of.”
—Bertolt Brecht (18981956)
“The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)